Justice Thomas falls short, Francis Guess tells law firm

5:59 AM,
Jan. 17, 2014

Francis Guess speaks at the Waller law firm's annual Martin Luther King Jr. tribute on Thursday.

Written by

Michael Cass
| The Tennessean

The U.S. Supreme Court has a black justice, but it doesn't have a justice who truly understands black people's concerns, a prominent African-American businessman said Thursday.

Francis Guess, a longtime civil rights leader and former commissioner of two state agencies under a Republican governor, said Clarence Thomas, the only African-American among the nine justices, isn't getting the job done as a representative of African-Americans on the nation's highest court.

"I think we need a black on the U.S. Supreme Court," Guess said, eliciting laughs and applause - and maybe a gasp or two - ...